Meek Mill’s case has become increasingly complicated since he was sentenced to two to four years in prison last November for probation violations. Meek’s legal team has accused Judge Genece Brinkley, who has overseen Meek’s case for the past nine years, of having a personal vendetta against the Philly rapper.
Now, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Brinkley and her newly retained attorney A. Charles Peruto Jr. have threatened to sue Meek’s attorneys for defamation of character, something Meek’s attorney Joe Tacopina welcomes.
“We look forward to a lawsuit from the judge and taking this to court where she will have to be deposed under oath and speak the truth,” Tacopina said in a statement to HipHopDX. “We are not shocked that Judge Brinkley has resorted to this tactic. She has filed 29 lawsuits, including lawsuits against the Hershey Estate and the Hershey Entertainment Resorts Company in Philadelphia Municipal Court, settled for $15,000 and claimed ‘trauma,’ ‘sleeplessness,’ ‘flashbacks,’ and ‘nightmares’ that she blamed on the hotel, where she had stayed for a 2012 judicial conference.
“Brinkley claimed that her emotional distress was triggered when she woke up in the middle of the night to find a housekeeper’s name badge in her bed,” he continued. “She also had sued The City of Philadelphia and tenants where she has tried to take advantage by using her title as a judge to intimidate them.”
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But Peruto Jr. told the Philadelphia Inquirer he believes they have a “solid” defamation case.
“What you have is an organization — extremely wealthy — who wants to attack a sitting judge,” he said. “It’s ‘How much money can you throw at a case and make your allegations stick?’ Her reputation has been severely damaged within the last month. We absolutely believe she has an absolute solid case.”
Tacopina and fellow attorney Jordan Siev aren’t backing down. They are adamant they have enough evidence showcasing a pattern of Brinkley urging Meek to leave his Roc Nation management in favor of former manager Charlie Mack.
Earlier this week, Brinkley released transcripts that showed Meek’s probation officer — not Brinkley — was pushing Meek to go back to Mack. Meek’s legal team begs to differ and provided transcripts of their own showing Brinkley has been suggesting Mack since as far back as 2012.
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“We won’t be intimidated, especially by a lawyer who visited Meek Mill days after he was sentenced and also called his defense team to try to get hired and offer him his legal services on this matter,” Tacopina says. “Additionally, he has changed his tune regarding his comments about paying $100,000 if the FBI concludes the judge did something wrong – his earlier comments to Law.com were that he would pay five years of his salary if the FBI ever investigated the judge. I guess he is withdrawing that bet now.”
Despite Tacopina and the rest of Meek’s legal team’s allegations against Brinkley, Peruto is confident she’s innocent of any wrongdoing.
“If there’s an FBI investigation against Genece Brinkley that concludes she did something wrong, I’ll pay them $100,000 out of my own money,” he said.
“It’s a lie.”
